From the "Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History" by William S. Dudley.
Jacob Lewis & the New York Flotilla.
Jacob Lewis was the commander of the privateer Bunker Hill early in the war and was appointed master commandant in the U.S. Navy in 1812. Given command of all the gunboats and fire ships stationed at New York, Lewis accepted this new challenge and set out to immediately assess the status of his flotilla.
One of his new ships was probably Gunboat No. 47, Richard Hill's ship.
He found his new command to be undermanned and "in a pitiable State owing to the prejudice against it." Lewis knew that he had local support because the committee for harbor defense, fearful of a swarm of British ships in the spring, exhorted the state legislature for money for defense.
Unsure of Navy Secretary Jones' support, he enlisted the support of Secretary of State James Monroe in convincing the Navy Department that gunboats used in coastal defense freed frigates for sea duty.
Brock-Perry
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